Before I review a new movie in a series, I see if I reviewed the last movie. Reading my review of previous Star Wars (Skywalker Saga) film, The Last Jedi, my thoughts on Episode 9, don't really have new focus but have added anther layer of thought. In that review, I say it's the most original Skywalker Saga movie to date and that's still true but, as a life long Star Wars fan (I went to the very first movie in the womb), is that what I want to wrap this all up? Ideally, I want it both ways but that can't happen. Rise of Skywalker tried really hard though. People criticize Return of The Jedi because they blow up another Death Star like that overshadows the awesomeness that is Anakin Skywalker's redemption story or Luke and Leia finding family and perhaps themselves. It doesn't. In Rise, no planet-killing starbase is destroyed.
In the previous review, I mention the new trio of Rey, Finn and Poe are not straight up copies of Luke, Han and Leia. Rise doesn't totally negate this but Poe was noticeably more Han than the previous two films; it's even revealed he was a spice runner before the current rebellion! It's not a big deal to me as that's the kind of people rebellions attract but that will irk people, I'm sure...
People have complained that they preferred not knowing who Rey's parentage is. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, this would have been unacceptable to me. Making her Palpatine's granddaughter, is the only way they could have gone. In this movie alone, Rey did things with the Force that we've seen only Palpatine and Yoda do and having to explain how she's also "Baby Yoda" would make any writer's room's heads explode... Does this mean the Force is strong with Naboo? And how? Luke and Leia's mother, Padme Amidala is from Naboo. The Emperor is from Naboo... (I love that Leia helped with her training and that we also got a glimpse of her own Jedi training. I was never satisfied with the books putting her in a politics/diplomacy box...)
You knew going in that Kylo Ren would regain his "humanity" as Ben Solo but I love how they went about it. After Rey heals his lightsaber wound, that she inflicted, he has a vision of his dead father and they have an exchange very similar to the exchange they had just before Kylo Ren kills him in The Force Awakens and I'm thinking is he going to stab his father's ghost? But no, he hurls his lightsaber into the turbulent ocean. (Apparently, Endor has a "Forest Moon" and a "Thunder Hole Moon"... Sorry for the Acadia National Park reference you non-Mainer readers...) He then goes and, like his grandfather before him, turns against Palpatine and helps Rey defeat him.
The act kills him and he evaporates like all good Jedi except Qui-Gon Jinn... (Will the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series explain this? We're running out of opportunities here...) Though not made clear, I assume that Leia finally died; knowing that her son was back among the redeemed? The reverse of sorts to how her mother died of a broken heart?
The biggest complaint about this movie was the reduction of Rose Tico's role from a whole 11 minutes in The Last Jedi to under two minutes in this movie presumably to pacify internet trolls living in their mom's Alabama basements. (At least that's the theory...) Unless you use a stopwatch, you don't notice and you especially don't notice if you're there for the characters you've know and loved for 42 years and ask questions like "Is [blank] in this movie?" She still seems more integral to the plot than Uhura in the first 50 years of Star Trek... I do, however, agree with the argument that the new potential girlfriends for Finn and Poe were unnecessary but I will point out it probably isn't a coincidence one of the new women is of African descent and the white woman (JJ Abrams favorite, Keri Russell) has her face mostly covered... Honestly, I'm more upset R2-D2 wasn't really in it...
Bottom line: if Star Wars part of your life, as it has been mine, you will be entertained...
In the previous review, I mention the new trio of Rey, Finn and Poe are not straight up copies of Luke, Han and Leia. Rise doesn't totally negate this but Poe was noticeably more Han than the previous two films; it's even revealed he was a spice runner before the current rebellion! It's not a big deal to me as that's the kind of people rebellions attract but that will irk people, I'm sure...
People have complained that they preferred not knowing who Rey's parentage is. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, this would have been unacceptable to me. Making her Palpatine's granddaughter, is the only way they could have gone. In this movie alone, Rey did things with the Force that we've seen only Palpatine and Yoda do and having to explain how she's also "Baby Yoda" would make any writer's room's heads explode... Does this mean the Force is strong with Naboo? And how? Luke and Leia's mother, Padme Amidala is from Naboo. The Emperor is from Naboo... (I love that Leia helped with her training and that we also got a glimpse of her own Jedi training. I was never satisfied with the books putting her in a politics/diplomacy box...)
You knew going in that Kylo Ren would regain his "humanity" as Ben Solo but I love how they went about it. After Rey heals his lightsaber wound, that she inflicted, he has a vision of his dead father and they have an exchange very similar to the exchange they had just before Kylo Ren kills him in The Force Awakens and I'm thinking is he going to stab his father's ghost? But no, he hurls his lightsaber into the turbulent ocean. (Apparently, Endor has a "Forest Moon" and a "Thunder Hole Moon"... Sorry for the Acadia National Park reference you non-Mainer readers...) He then goes and, like his grandfather before him, turns against Palpatine and helps Rey defeat him.
The act kills him and he evaporates like all good Jedi except Qui-Gon Jinn... (Will the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series explain this? We're running out of opportunities here...) Though not made clear, I assume that Leia finally died; knowing that her son was back among the redeemed? The reverse of sorts to how her mother died of a broken heart?
The biggest complaint about this movie was the reduction of Rose Tico's role from a whole 11 minutes in The Last Jedi to under two minutes in this movie presumably to pacify internet trolls living in their mom's Alabama basements. (At least that's the theory...) Unless you use a stopwatch, you don't notice and you especially don't notice if you're there for the characters you've know and loved for 42 years and ask questions like "Is [blank] in this movie?" She still seems more integral to the plot than Uhura in the first 50 years of Star Trek... I do, however, agree with the argument that the new potential girlfriends for Finn and Poe were unnecessary but I will point out it probably isn't a coincidence one of the new women is of African descent and the white woman (JJ Abrams favorite, Keri Russell) has her face mostly covered... Honestly, I'm more upset R2-D2 wasn't really in it...
Bottom line: if Star Wars part of your life, as it has been mine, you will be entertained...
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